Used and Abused.

  That's how I think of Udex. He was used, used, used some more, and the whole time abused. To be honest, I don't care who's using hyperflexion on a horse. Wether it be a beginner thinking that's the right way to round a horse, or a top grand prix rider of the sport; abuse is abuse. The ill effects rollkur has had on my horse are unbelievable. Times like yesterday I think is it even fair to let him live on? All this pain he has.. Is it right to try to recover him, or would he be better off free from this painful, challenging world... Then I think that that's only letting the terrible rollkur riders win. That's letting them destroy him. Udex has the drive to fight to be a normal horse again; you can see the fire in his eyes now. I know that he was saved so I could expose the truth about hyperflexion. As you know, he was a horse that was started with it from day one, all the way until it became too much. Not just for minutes at a time, but tens of minutes, possibly even hours. If there was damage to be done by rollkur, you can see it with Udex. He is living proof that rollkur does damage, and not any good.... at all.
 The other day my Dutch trainer came out to have a look. She being such an experienced horsewoman brought to light a lot of problems I was refusing to see the full extent of. Example; the excessive yawning. If you don't know (I didn't up until yesterday) horses usually only yawn once, twice, or maybe even three times if they are tired.. Anything over three times and you should be concerned. There could be a skeletal problem, stress, anxiety, dental problems.. The list goes on. In Udexs' case it is due to a probable skeletal problem and stress due to the pain. As I have said numerous times in my previous posts, Udex has a very bad back due to none other then the "wonderful" hyperflexion. His lumbar spine is locked in place, which causes him to trot in two pieces, much like a rocking horse. Beyond that, it also causes his vertebrae's and ligaments to rub wrong and cause even more pain. Some of his vertebraes' may even be fused together. You could say he has spavin and osteoarthritis in these places. When a horse is ridden so long behind the verticle, eventually those vertebraes do start to form a bone like growth; fusing them together. Also, his nuchal ligaments are very sore and may have damage as well.
 Tying Udex up. Thats another story. Whenever he is tied up he starts to think of what happens next. Horses remember the bad things that happen to them. Unfortunately for Udex he knows that when he was tied up, he was forced to work in a very, very uncomfortable position and worked extremely hard to show off his flashy movements. Every time he is tied, even if I only want to feed him or groom him he starts to pace and go wild. That has been one of the hardest things to work with him at. Having a 17.2 hand horse pacing side to side pulling and breaking lead ropes isn't exactly the easiest thing to work with. When he sees the saddle he starts to become even more tense, stressed, and fearful. He registers the saddle with his back pain. He knows saddle = a lot of pain. The bridle isn't any better. He knows the bit is a sharp, painful tool that will yank him behind the verticle, causing him pain as well.
  My trainer had the perfect description of Udexs' head throwing. When he is behind the bit he is thinking "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh..." then he throws it and while doing so thinks "HELP ME!" You can imagine how that goes..."Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh... HELP ME.! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh... HELP ME.!" I did get a chuckle in while watching her reenact that.
 I am not going to ride Udex until the osteopathic comes out and takes a look at him and works on making his pain go away. She will be coming within two weeks! I'm a little nervous about all this. I hope she will be able to find a way to make his pain go away!! I don't want him to life life with pain in every step. Oh well! Positive out looks! For now looks like I will just be working on ground work, respect, and cuddling with Udex!

"Rollkur opponents care for horses. Rollkur proponents care more for success."